Successful organizational transformations are magical—engaging, enjoyable, and impactful. But they're also about as rare as three-horned unicorns!
Most transformations either fizzle out after early wins or never even leave the ground, usually because stakeholders can't agree on the basics: what's broken, how to fix it, or who's paying for it. Management meetings aiming for certainty are where transformations go to die.
But there's a way to change all that.
Are you a transformation lead or change manager appointed to spearhead a complex transformation* in your organization, or perhaps a senior manager looking to staff a transformation? Have you got a transformation that is struggling to get off the ground or has stalled halfway through?
If so, then a) this is for you, and b) don’t worry! Helping transformations get going—either from the start or from being stuck—and building momentum, is our specialty.
* A transformation is a major change initiative that spans several organizational functions and aims to enhance or develop new organizational capabilities and the behaviors that support them.
Most major transformations get stuck, never reach liftoff or take so long that the results are outdated before they even show. Why? An inability or unwillingness to navigate uncertainty.
Crystal balls don’t exist, but management desperately wants one. So, they’re stuck in endless meetings battling over hypothetical future scenarios and arguing over imaginary crystal balls. Meanwhile, nothing happens and opportunity slips away.
The only certainty in transformation is uncertainty— the sooner you embrace that, the faster you'll actually make something happen.
You've been there: trying to figure out every single detail of a future that doesn't exist yet. Perhaps even spending big bucks to get help trying to predict the unpredictable, feeding it with even more presumed certainty.
Meticulously painting an elaborate picture of the transformation, breaking it down into processes, structures, systems—the works. Then, designing and planning change initiatives to get it all into place.
But here’s the funny thing: the more details you add, the more debate it seems to spark. It’s as if everyone's looking at it through a different lens and no one's seeing the exact same landscape. Turns out, the picture is not as obvious for everyone as it is for you.
The unpredictable nature of organizations and the complex interactions between people mean traditional, linear methods for change won’t do the job. This requires an experimental and exploratory approach and an ability for continuous learning.
Simply put, what you need is a compass, not a detailed map—just the right amount of strategic direction to get change rolling, no more and no less.
Find the most important problems, start experimenting to solve them, learn from doing so, and iterate. It might be slow at first, but as new behaviors start to emerge and pay off, social proof starts doing the trick. And before you know it, you’ve started a movement of change in your organization.
Forget carrots and sticks. New behaviors are an emergent result of changes in the context. Simply put, when ease and motivation exceed the barriers to doing something new or in a new way, people will do it.
Unfortunately, there’s no universal playbook. What works will vary from context to context, and the only way to find out is to experiment and learn over time. No more roll-out of generic top-down designed solutions. Instead, we will help you set up a framework to systematize your experimentation and ensure continuous learning.
Many small experiments will reveal what truly moves the needle and create change that’s organic, sustainable and contagious.
Here are three ways to start getting your transformation unstuck,
while simultaneously determining if Friktion is the right choice for you!
A change brief is just the right amount of strategy to get your transformation unstuck! No more, no less!
In two workshops we’ll help your management team or transformation steering make sense of a few key questions:
Why change?
Why change now?
What does change look like?
What's in the way of change?
How to start change?
Price: 50 000 SEK (excluding VAT)
Choosing the right method depends on the nature of the change. Traditional change management methods might suffice for simple, complicated and unidirectional problems. But for complex change involving human behavior, interdependencies and high variation, a complexity-aware and non-linear approach is required.
In one workshop with your change team, we’ll assess the nature of the change you have before you and give our recommendations on methodology, scope and required resources.
Price: 25 000 SEK (excluding VAT)
New to non-linear change and complexity-aware methodology? We've got you!
We'll spend a morning or afternoon (3 hours) with your team diving deep into the topic, covering complexity theory, sensemaking, behavior change and non-linear change methodology. We'll start off by exploring your current situation, give plenty of room for questions and discussions throughout the session, and send you off with a high-level idea of how to put the ideas to work right away.
Price: 10 000 SEK (excluding VAT)
